FeBio

Development and construction of a novel, cost-effective, input-flexible and efficient solids biogas plant up to 75 kWel.

Topic

In the future, mainly residual materials are to be used for biogas production. Especially for small, decentralized residual material quantities in rural areas, the use of small plants with a rated output of up to 75 kWel. is a technically reasonable solution. Currently, small wet fermentation plants are primarily designed for manure utilization and the use of solid residues is only possible to a limited extent. For residual materials with high dry matter contents, such as horse manure, complex pre-treatment is therefore necessary. The alternative of solid matter fermentation (TS >20%), which is more suitable from a technical point of view, currently has uneconomical power generation costs of >20 cents/kWhel for small plants.

Goals

A solid matter digester with investment costs below 8,000 €/kWel. is to be developed in order to enable electricity production costs of less than 15 cents/kWhel. for small plants. For this purpose, low construction costs, low transport and storage costs, a regional use of the residual materials as well as the realization in a kind of builder-owner model are planned. With the construction and operation of a prototype under real operating conditions, project planning and operating experience will be gathered. During operation, optimizations based on operating experience with different substrates and operating conditions will be incorporated. The need for adaptation of existing legal regulations is determined along the entire project planning chain. If the economic and technical feasibility is proven, a plant is then brought to final market readiness by the participating SME.

Project tasks of the State Institute

The tasks of the state institute in the project are the preparation of a substrate management concept and the monitoring and optimization of the plant operation with regard to substrates and gas yields. The substrate sources have been developed. Currently, the plant is under construction. The construction will be end by middle of 2023.